Despite crises, Lebanon a holiday draw

BEIRUT — Lebanon may seem an unlikely holiday spot: The government has collapsed, car bombs go off periodically and foreign envoys warn of an impending civil war.

And yet, so many people have been streaming into this tiny, struggling country in recent days that the flights are all overbooked, and some are driving 18 hours to get there from the Persian Gulf.

Beirut's restaurants, bars and malls are all packed with revelers.

Why? The answer is that the Lebanese diaspora reverses itself on holidays, as the migrants who sustain the war-shattered Lebanese economy all year return from jobs across the globe to spend time with their families.

"Look at all these people - there's a political crisis, but do they care?" said Ali Hasbini, 30, sitting at a cafe table with three other young Lebanese overseas workers in the Verdun district of west Beirut. "Of course not."

The table was a panorama of the Lebanese diaspora: One of the men lived in Singapore; one in Aden, Yemen; one in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia; and one in Dubai. All had come home to see the families they helped sustain during the year.

Lebanon has been without a president since Nov. 23, when Emile Lahoud stepped down without any agreement on a successor. Since then, Parliament has delayed voting on a new president 10 times, and negotiations have grown steadily more rancorous.

For some families, Lebanon has become little more than a reunion site.

"We're all here for the holidays, but none of us live here anymore," said Maria Pamoukian, 28, an urban planner based in Abu Dhabi who was born in Beirut.